2011-09-04

Earlier this year DAZ introduced the Genesis figure — or series of figures, as they like to call it — as part of DAZ Studio 4.

Much of the content made for previous generations of DAZ figures (Victoria 4, Michael 4, The Kids 4, etc) can also be used with Genesis. Here is a brief overview of the situation:

Textures for V4/M4/K4 can be applied without modification. In DAZ Studio you simply need to select the appropriate UV set on all surfaces.

Clothing can be converted with Auto-Fit (sold separately, and included in DAZ Studio 4 Advanced and Pro). Currently it has limitations, so I recommend visiting the forums at DAZ for more information about this. Clothing can also be converted using the Content Creator Toolkit (sold separately, and included in DS4 Pro).

2010-11-25

If you don't use DAZ Studio, you will need to download Kattey's remaps from sharecg. Kattey's freebie includes instructions. RTEncoder is required to use them.

The procedure described below is for DAZ Studio 3 users, the free version will suffice. The instructions cover both V4 and M4: at certain steps you need to choose the appropriate file as specified according to your chosen source figure.

Prerequisites

DAZ Studio 3 (free)

Victoria 4 or Michael 4 and The Kids 4

Applying Victoria 4's or Michael 4's UVs to the Kids 4

Load the target figure, in this case The Kids 4

Make sure it is selected, and locate the Surfaces tab

Click on the little arrow in the upper right corner of the Surfaces tab and then click Load UV Set...

You get a file dialog titled "Import Geometry", open the mesh for V4 (../Runtime/Geometries/DAZPeople/blMilWom_v4b.obj) or the mesh for M4 (../Runtime/Geometries/DAZPeople/blMilMan_m4b.obj)

You get a dialog titled "Load UV Set", enter a name (eg V4UV or M4UV) and click OK

In the Surfaces tab, select the surfaces on which the new UVs are to be applied. If you want to select all of them, which is the easiest route, just click on the figure's name at the top of the list of surfaces ("The Kids 4").

In the Advanced tab within Surfaces, scroll down to the UV Maps area and select the new UV set (V4UV or M4UV).

Looking at the K4 figure in the preview you should see that the default K4 textures no longer apply correctly to the figure (mouth, nostrils, etc). This is as it should be; the figure is now ready for textures made for Victoria or Michael.

That's all there is to it. You can now save this modified figure for future use.

Swapping the UVs using UVMapper Classic

Open Victoria 4's mesh
(../Runtime/Geometries/DAZPeople/blMilWom_v4b.obj)After it's done loading, you may get a popup saying "Error opening material library", this is normal.

From the File menu, select Export UVs...

UVMapper gives you a window with options, deselect them all and click OK

Choose the location and a name for the exported UVs. You need this file later, so pay attention here! I saved mine as C:\V4UV.uvs

From the File menu, select Load Model...

Open Michael 4's mesh
(../Runtime/Geometries/DAZPeople/blMilMan_m4b.obj)Again after it's done loading, you may get a popup saying "Error opening material library", this is normal.

From the File menu, select Import UVs...

Locate the file you saved in step 6 (C:\V4UV.uvs) and click OK

From the File menu, select Save Model...

Browse to the location where you have Michael 4's mesh, and save this altered copy with a different name (blMilMan_m4b_V4UV.obj)

We now have a copy of Michael 4's mesh which is compatible with textures made for Victoria 4.

Making a new CR2

Locate the CR2 for Michael 4
(../Runtime/Libraries/Character/DAZ People/Michael 4.cr2)
and make a copy of it in the same folder. I named mine M4 V4UV.cr2

Open the copy (!) in a text editor

There are two lines that look like this:figureResFile ":Runtime:Geometries:DAZPeople:blMilMan_m4b.obj",both of these lines need to be edited to match the file name of the new mesh we saved earlier (blMilMan_m4b_V4UV.obj). They should look like this:figureResFile ":Runtime:Geometries:DAZPeople:blMilMan_m4b_V4UV.obj"

Now save the file.

All done! If it works, congratulations. If not, post a comment and I'll look into it :)

2010-11-24

Thanks to the so called unimesh concept morphs made for any of the fourth generation figures can be used on all of them. Victoria 4's Creature Creator on Kids 4 or Michael 4? No problem :) Due to technical reasons the results will not always be perfect, nevertheless it can be very useful.